Rob Jackson

Good wine. Good friends.

A perfect evening.

My wife bought me a fancy expresso machine for Xmas. I don’t know squat about expresso, but she knew it would pique my curiosity and I would figure it out.

I have - at least a little - and now I greet her every weekend morningv with a fresh hot cappuccino.

Hmmmm. Thinking I might have been played…

Back on Micro.blog. I am incorporating it into my blot.im main blog at robj.blog. I think this will work out. Short chain of thought posts here, with longer more thoughtful and references on robj.blog/

I really liked RSS and was sorry to see it go. But is it gone?

Nope. Still alive and kicking, just not popular. Kind of like me. But I digress….

Looking for a good RSS reader

I have been looking for a good RSS reader for some time. Tried Inoreader, Commafeed, Miniflux, FreshRSS. They all have good and bad qualities; all have things I like and don’t like. But after searching for a while, I going back to Minifulx.

Miniflux.app

Miniflux is designed to be a minimalistic, privacy focused RSS reader. Few features, little bloat, Just a basic, fast RSS reader with most expected functions. Its also privacy focused. No ads, no trackers, no automatic renewal.

Its a little clunky too, but I kind of like that. The most important thing to me is that the data is yours. Its open sourced, and no fast and efficient.

Although it is free, I am using the inexpensive hosted version. $15 a year is a small price to pay. It helps support the developer and keeps me from having to update and screw with the install. Rob likely…

Still playing with and trying to get better at using (it does have keyboard shortcuts) but if you are looking for a inexpensive, privacy focused RSS reader, Miniflux may be just what you need.

I am switching back to Linux as my main OS - Pop! OS specifically.

Two Year Journey

I have been messing with Linux for over 2 years. I have been a Mac guy for two decades, I was Mac when Mac wasn’t cool. Back in the days when people looked at my “Hello Kitty” iBook and said “what is that?” I once went to speak at a conference, pulled out my iBook, and heard the IT guys say “We CAN’T accommodate that” - don’t you have a different computer with the presentation on it.”

“No, I don’t - sorry”

… so I did the presentation without the PowerPoint. So it goes.

Nowadays, Mac’s are ubiquitous. And I am very happy with my Apple products and my Mac’s. Great interoperability with in their ecosystem. Well-built. Easy to use. But…..

Apple’s Intrusions

I was perfectly fine with my Apple’s until I found myself in a cabin in the woods with a crappy Internet connection. We had several devices on this crappy connection and it just kept getting crappier and crappier. So I looked into speeding it up.

What I found out was that the reason the connection was so slow was because all the Apple devices on the network (laptops, iPhones, iPads) were constantly “phoning home” - checking in every few seconds for whatever reason. I mean it was constant. Multiple pings a second. Rarely did a few seconds go by without some bandwidth use - even when the computer wasn’t being actively used. Later, I learned that Apple, like most big private companies, tracks just about everything you do on your device - for your “safety” and “a”better user experience” of course. It was crazy. And it was unacceptable. I started looking for a quieter, more private alternative.

Enter Pop!OS

I found what I was looking for in a Linux distribution, Pop!OS from System76. Its a free open source operating system that has some focus on control and privacy. Most importantly, it doesn’t phone home constantly. It isn’t tracking everything you do. It’s not as smooth as Apple’s OS, but it isnt bad.

I went back and forth using both for quite some time, but I have finally settled on using Pop!OS as my main operating system. I need to use my Mac at work still - mostly to get a solid copy of Microsoft Word (not available on Linux), but other than work, all of stuff is done my my Linux machines. I am happy … enough. And I can use them in low bandwidth environments. No snooping either.

Highly recommend switching if you are so inclined.

I first got my Pinboard account over a decade ago. If you are not familiar, Pinboard is a bookmarking service. It’s a place where you can save and store bookmarks. It is a great little service - clean, minimalist, well-organized. I signed up many tears ago on a life time plan I think. The have since started charging for some services, but it still isn’t a lot.

It’s run by a one-man show. I like the service, even though the owner has disappeared for a time or gone off the rails occasionally on X occasionally

Self-Hosting

That said, I have decided to be even more independent than I already am and doing to self-host everything I am comfortable with including bookmarks. I found LinkDing a self hosted bookmarking service that has a similar look and feel to Pinboard. I am hosting it on PikaPods, which I quite like so far - but there will be more on that later.

Memory Lane

What this blog post is about is a trip down memory lane. I have started going through my old Pinboard links as I transfer them to LinkDing. I have thousands of links and many of them are a decade or so old. It is interesting to see what I saved back then and how I feel about those things now. Unsurprisingly, many of the things from back then are not important anymore. Also not surprising, many of the links are broken - well over half. One of the things I like about LinkDing is it has an option to save all your new links in the Internet Archive. Therefore, if the link goes offline later, it should always be available on the Internet Archive site. The creator of LinkDIng also encourages you to donate to the Internet Archive - something I am certainly going to look at.

It’s been a fun trip down memory lane. I have a lot of links to transfer over, and this is a long term project. But by the end, I should have on my links culled, tagged, and archived in a searchable self-hosted platform.

More on this later.

I’ve been re-watching the entire series, which originally aired from 2011-2019. I forgot about how good it is.

I remembered it being good. It liked it when I originally watched in the 2010s. But I remember thinking it peaked at the second to last season. The last season was at disappointment - at least that is what I recalled..

I started watching again earlier this summer simply because I forgot some of the storyline. But then I got hooked again. Now, I am approaching the end of the series and I realize how developed the characters are. There are many interactions in the last two seasons that I did not pick up on the first time I watched.

I have also been watching the House of Dragon series, which has got me in a Game of Thrones mindset. The stories are good. I have not read the books, but probably will. It’s unfortunate that GRR Martin hasn’t finished the stories yet, but so it goes. People are mad at him for not doing so, but you know what, it is his prerogative. There are his stories and he can do what he wants with them.

Enjoy Art…or Not. Don’t Stress About It.

I simply don’t get how people can get mad at him. He gave us these stories. They are not yours. That’s the nature of art and creativity, it’s never what you want. In the end, it’s just entertainment. You are free to do whatever you want with it. You can imagine different versions or endings or whatever. Nothing is stopping you.

That’s the beauty of art. It’s an individual experience. What brings someone to tears will bore the hell out of someone else. So be it.

Don’t be possessive of someone else’s art. Just enjoy it while it lasts. Because you never know when it will end or where it will go.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

• Time Enough for Love, Robert A. Heinlein

I love Heinlein. I think he is truly one of the great thinkers of the 20th century. And this quote is one of my favorites. Read him. You will enjoy it. Even if you don’t agree with what he says, he will make you think. And we need that more than ever.

I have a suggestion for a new motto.

Instead of “Don’t Be Evil” Let’s go with “Never Trust Google”

www.wired.com/story/wha…

Saw a wild mink yesterday for the first time. I added it to my “Colorado Creatures” list.

Still in Colorado and look what I caught.

I got a nice 13 in brown too

Well, I discovered why the photo challenge is called a challenge. Because it’s not easy.

Seems like it would be easy – just post a photo every day for 30 days – but it’s not. Life just gets in the way. For me I got sick for a while, I had a travel to a wedding, and work… the ever present work. Reminds me of something one of my professors said to me when I was in grad school. At a time I had a young family. It was living apart for them to go to school and commuting home on the weekends. It was difficult. I was also older and it was training for a second career after being in the military. Basically, I was not your typical student living your typical student experience.

When I mentioned these challenges to my professor, she said “well school would be easy if life didn’t get in the way.” But it always does, doesn’t it?

As I’ve gotten older, I realized that John Lennon was right, life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. It’s a journey that should be enjoyed. It cannot be planned to perfection.

And so, if you didn’t complete the photo challenge, who cares? There’ll be another one coming along soon, and if you fail that one too, no matter. All that matters is that I had fun posting some photos and I’m still posting at the end of the month. Why? Because I’m enjoying it. And that’s enough. It is all that matters

April photoblog: day 30 - hometown

Glen Hansard in my hometown. 2018

Dawn patrol at the lake. Early am ruck

April Photoblogging: Day 29 - drift.

Waiting for a fish to rise….

April photoblog: Day 25 - spine. This is a tough one… have no idea what to post.

April photoblog challenge: Day 24 - light. Wilco, 2016

April photoblog challenge: Day 23 - dreamy….

April Photoblog challenge: Day 22 - blue